Zona de Azar USA – G2E Interview: Christine Thurmond, Senior Director, Responsible Gaming, DraftKings
USA.- September 30th 2022 www.zonadeazar.com In this month’s Industry Insider, we spoke with Christine Thurmond, Senior Director of Responsible Gaming at DraftKings about her background, how DraftKings is advancing responsible gaming, how she is promoting diversity and inclusion, and more.
You’ve spent a large portion of your career working as an advocate. How has your earlier career influenced the development of responsible gaming programs at DraftKings?
Before joining DraftKings, I was a senior business contributor at the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health which in part entailed hiring the GameSense Advisors who are promoting responsible gaming and educating patrons on casino games in all Massachusetts casinos. Through that role, I have seen first-hand how state councils are a tremendous advocate and resource for individuals and families, and serve as a critical stakeholder and partner for gaming operators. Through DraftKings’ State Council Funding Program, we are committed to advancing responsible gaming in collaboration with state councils across the U.S. Our hope is that this funding will give councils that extra support needed to fund priority areas, expand services, or hire additional staff.
Prior to that, I was at the Harvard Medical School where I served in various leadership positions, including on the original team that created the Division on Addiction. I oversaw the administration of education and research for the department and assisted in establishing numerous gaming-related programs. Prior to my arrival at DraftKings, the company had collaborations with the Harvard affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance Division on Addiction, and beginning last year, we engaged in a strategic consulting agreement in which they are working with my team to pioneer a systems-based approach to training employees in responsible gaming across the business.
With the increase in access to legal sports betting across the country, responsible gaming continues to be a high priority for the gaming industry. What are some of the biggest challenges within the space right now and how is DraftKings responding?
DraftKings takes a multi-pronged approach to addressing responsible gaming. From a prevention perspective, but also thinking about trust in our brand, our highest priority is that our customers are playing safely. The DraftKings approach to responsible gaming incorporates consumer education and awareness, training for our staff, collaborating with third parties including non-profits and advocacy groups, and supporting evidence-based research. We strive for excellence in responsible gaming, which is why my team is focused on continuously looking for ways to improve, and why training our staff is so important.
Collaborating externally with other operators and third parties is critical to our efforts to address problem gaming. As one example, this year, DraftKings, a member of the National Council on Problem Gambling, was pleased to announce the new State Council Funding Program, an innovative program we developed to offer multi-year financial commitments to state councils. This $1.5+ million initiative represents the first time a U.S. operator has offered funding to every council across the U.S.
What are you most proud of about your time at DraftKings? What do you see on the horizon for responsible gaming?
During my time at DraftKings, we have had many accomplishments in the RG space, both internally and externally. Internally, I am immensely proud of how our systems-based approach has been accepted and integrated into the various stakeholders workstreams, as well as how engaged our employees have been about embracing responsible gaming as an integral part of their job. A reflection of our commitment was acknowledged this year as DraftKings was the recipient of the 2022 National Council on Problem Gambling’s Corporate Social Responsibility Award. Externally, The State Council Funding Program I mention earlier is something my team is very proud of—particularly having DraftKings be the first operator to offer funding to all state affiliates even in jurisdictions where the company does not offer its products.
On the horizon, we think the program will have a ripple effect—state councils will continue to serve as a fantastic resource to individuals and families, and operators will find new ways to engage these groups to move responsible gaming forward.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are big priorities throughout the gaming industry. How have you helped nurture and grow these principles? Where do you see the need for improvement across the industry?
The gaming industry, and by extension responsible gaming, is undergoing a major expansion in North America, yet it has several challenges now and ahead that are common to top brands competing for consumers, including: being a socially responsible company and committing to diversity or inclusion, equity and belonging. And this isn’t just an issue for consumers; companies like DraftKings are competing for talent among candidates that value corporate social responsibility.
By and large, in my career I’ve noticed that employees and prospective employees want to work for an organization that meaningfully commits to improving the community and to fostering diversity and inclusion for staff. The DraftKings global corporate social responsibility program, DraftKings S.E.R.V.E.S., is a program dedicated to serving our employees, our customers, and those in pursuit of innovation everywhere, through Service, Equity, Responsible Gaming, Vitality, Entrepreneurship, and Sports.
On the equity pillar, our IEB (Inclusion, Equity and Belonging) team works to foster a culture of IEB that makes our employees feel safe, empowered, engaged, and championed. We understand that creating a workplace that fosters inclusion and welcomes diversity is an ever-evolving process. We are committed to taking action and are proud to invest more than $1 million annually to accelerate our IEB philosophy through a multi-pronged approach centered on maintaining parity in opportunity across the employee lifecycle, from hiring through career progress.
On the responsible gaming pillar, our employees are our partners in ensuring that responsible gaming is a core value at DraftKings. We are committed to going above and beyond what is required for us as an operator; we want to create the best responsible gaming education curriculum and program in the industry. Responsible gaming, like many other public health issues, has diversity concerns as gaming-related problems impact some groups differently. It’s critical that the new research in responsible gaming/safe play look at how different demographics respond to gaming—for example, the veteran and military community according to research experience different impacts and have different needs than the general population. That’s why I am proud DraftKings is a contributor to Kindbridge Research Institute’s veterans research project, among other evidence-based initiatives we are supporting at DraftKings.
G2E is where the global gaming industry comes together to discover, connect, and explore. What are you most looking forward to at G2E 2022?
G2E has always offered an engaging forum of discovery, connections, and exploration of the next generation of innovation. I am looking forward to seeing old colleagues and meeting new connections so that together we can drive the industry further. I am a firm believer that in the responsible gaming space, we are smarter, stronger, and more productive when we find ways to work together and strive to provide the best and safest playing experience for our customers.
Edited by: @MaiaDigital www.zonadeazar.com
